What to look for as the Houston Rockets face the Shanghai Sharks

The Rockets are taking on the Shanghai Sharks tonight. Remember Jimmer Fredette? Well, he’s on the team, but he’s not playing due to a knee injury. The other guy with NBA experience who may be familiar to Rockets fans is Josh Akognon, who played for the Dallas Mavericks and was a member of the Memphis Grizzles once upon a time. At one point, Gilbert Arenas and Michael Beasley each played for the Sharks too. Fun fact: the Shanghai Sharks are owned by former Rockets great Yao Ming. So what should we expect in a fun exhibition game like this?

Well, don’t expect the Rockets to play the starters close to 30 minutes like they did against the Thunder. This is as good of a chance as the team will get to play some of their younger guys trying to gain experience and play for a roster spot. Ryan Anderson will not be playing tonight because of a hip injury sustained after a hard fall Tuesday evening. Nene didn’t play last game, but is now expected to get some action tonight. P.J. Tucker will replace Anderson in the starting lineup as a stretch-four.

While we shouldn’t make too much of it, this is an intriguing move and tells us quite a bit about what Mike D’Antoni thinks of Tucker. He’s raved of Tucker’s toughness and versatility all training camp and has now chosen to trot him out there rather than Nene or Luc Mbah a Moute – both of whom are considered to be power forwards. It seems that outside of Eric Gordon, Tucker may be the most trusted player off the bench thus far.

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All eyes will be on Zhou Qi tonight as he shined in his preseason debut. He only played four minutes all game but he accumulated two blocks and three boards to go along with four points. Another reason he’s interesting tonight is because of his experience playing against the Shanghai Sharks as part of the Chinese Basketball Association last year. Zhou chose to sign a three-year deal back in 2014 to remain in China with the Xinjiang Flying Tigers rather than coming to America and playing college ball. Last season, he averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds while being named Defensive Player of the Year and leading them to the CBA championship.

Aside from Zhou, this will be a great chance for some of the other guys who may be sitting on the roster bubble to try and separate themselves. Over the course of the fourth quarter against the Thunder, Isaiah Taylor, Bobby Brown, Demetrius Jackson, Troy Williams and Chris Johnson joined Zhou in garbage time. Really, nobody looked spectacularly comfortable or to separate themselves but each of those guys are fighting to stay in Houston rather than go down to Rio Grande Valley with the Rockets’ G-League team. This game should be a lot of fun and we’ll have a great chance to see some of the players just go out and show us what they’ve got!

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